Finding Grace in Self Care

October 24, 2007

Ephesians 2:7-10

“ . . .so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

Last week, I spent the week in a training class with ministers from all over the continent. While there, I happened upon a book about clergy self-care. I like to live the delusion that I am taking care of myself but when I am honest, for the last three months I have not been setting my boundaries. I am exhausted! I know all of the right things to do but I wind up not doing them because I am a pleaser. I want to make all of you happy and take care of your expectations. When I live that way, I become very self-reliant and in so doing I make very little room for God, family, friends, exercise or good nutrition, etc. Instead, I eat, sleep (not so well) and breathe St. John’s. Frankly, that is not healthy. So when I read in this book that I owe it to you to take care of myself, I suddenly felt a freedom to give you the gift of my good self-care. By taking the time to be with God, family, friends, exercise, eat well, etc., I offer you the best of myself. In those words, I found the freedom to redirect my life. In those words, I found the opportunity to stop making other people my authority and to allow God to be the authority for me that I should allow God to be. In those words I found God’s grace.

The author of Ephesians, spoke to us last week about the gift of grace that comes in the gift of Christ and this week he looks at what it means in the context of being a Christian. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace. It is a gift and no matter how hard you and I may work at being servants to others, it is not that out-pouring of self that earns us God’s grace. If it were then we would hear each other professing that we spent 15 hours in the office and are further ahead in gaining grace that Joe who only spent 10! We would compete with each other over our level of earnings related to God’s grace and we would pride ourselves on being better than others. If we did that, we would miss the entire point of grace. Grace comes in understanding that God created us just as we were intended to be and if we root ourselves in relationship with God then the overflow are good works for others that don’t lead to competition, pride, boasting or even the pleasing of others. If we root ourselves in God, we find that God’s grace is really all we need and that grace leads us to peace—profound peace.

I’ve made my confession. What about you? Where are you rooted? Do you pour yourself into expecting from others or trying to live up to perceived expectations? Or do you just love—purely? Do you overwork yourself and wind up being prideful, boastful and competitive or do you live in peace and in God’s grace? How much of your life is lived in self-reliance?

We think of life as being hard but when lived in the posture of being rooted in God’s grace, life actually can seem easy! As I reach for that ease of living, I make that my prayer for you as well this day. May we release our self-reliance and find God’s grace to trust God fully!

Grace and Peace! Amen.